Personal emergency response systems are known in the art. Representative examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,656,319, 4,524,243, 4,064,368 and 3,989,900, owned by the assignee of the present application. The personal emergency response system includes a central station and one or more remote subscriber stations such as a residence or business interconnected therewith.
The central station may be any facility such as a hospital, a police station, a fire station, a phone answering service or a burglary alarm monitoring service which responds to alarm messages generated by remote subscriber stations to provide assistance thereto. The central station is interconnected with the remote subscriber stations via communication links.
Various communication links may be utilized to interconnect the central station with remote subscriber stations including telephone communication lines, cable television transmission lines, radio frequency transmissions or dedicated land lines. Typically, telephone communication lines are utilized due to the prevalence of in-place telephone networks and the minimal expense necessary to interface a personal emergency response system with a telephone network.
Each remote subscriber station includes a subscriber unit interfaced with the communications link. Upon activation of subscriber unit in response to a predetermined event, an alarm message is transmitted via the communications link to the central station.
Various means may be utilized to activate the subscriber unit to transmit an alarm message. The subscriber unit may include a timing/logic circuit which is operative to automatically activate the unit upon expiration of a predetermined period of time. A subscriber unit of this type will also include a subscriber-activated reset means which reinitializes the timing circuit. The reset means may be interfaced with any device frequently used by the subscriber such as electrical switches, television sets, radios, refrigerators, stoves or telephones wherein the use of any such device causes the timing circuit to be reset to zero.
The subscriber unit may also be activated by means of a portable activator carried by the subscriber. A portable activator is particularly useful to elderly or infirm subscribers who may be prone to acute emergencies requiring an immediate response. The portable activator also has utility for notifying the central station of an event such as a fire or an intruder in the remote subscriber station. When immediate assistance is required by the subscriber, the portable activator is manually operated to activate the system.
The portable activator is typically a wireless unit which transmits an uncoded or coded signal to activate the subscriber unit. Most commonly the portable activator is a radio transmitter, although infrared and ultrasonic transmitters may also be used.
Since the portable activator is a critical link in the system, it is of paramount importance that the portable activator be periodically tested to insure proper operation thereof, and/or to inform the subscriber of any limiting conditions. Since the portable activator is self-powered, one possible deficiency is the depletion of the power source to such a level that the portable activator is no longer capable of generating a signal which will activate the system. Other possible deficiencies of which the subscriber should immediately be made aware of include any activator malfunction or damage which precludes generation of the activating signal.
In addition to deficiencies affecting the functioning of the portable activator, it will be appreciated that a wireless portable activator may also be subject to range limitations and/or transmission deadspots, that is, locations in the remote subscriber station wherein an activating signal cannot be transmitted to the subscriber unit.
It is therefore of paramount importance that the subscriber be made aware of any functional, range and/or location deficiencies affecting the portable activator. While it is desirous to periodically test the operation of the portable activator, it will be appreciated that such testing should not cause the system to generate and transmit an alarm to the central station. Transmission of an alarm message during testing unnecessarily ties up the resources of the central station which may result in delayed responses to actual emergency conditions in other remote subscriber stations as well as provoking an unnecessary response to the particular remote subscriber station.
A co-pending application, entitled APPARATUS AND METHOD OF TESTING A PORTABLE ACTIVATOR FOR A PERSONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM, discloses an apparatus and method of testing the operation and/or defining the limitations of a portable activator without degrading the operational capabilities of the central station. While the aforesaid application provides the subscriber with knowledge as to the proper operation of the system, it will be appreciated that the status of the elements of the system located within the remote subscriber stations remains unknown to the central station.
It will be appreciated that subscribers may occasionally be remiss in checking the operation of the portable activator. When portable activators are not periodically checked, the likelihood of nonfunctional activators increases, with a corresponding decrease in the overall effectiveness of the system.
One possible solution to ensure that the operation of portable activators are timely checked is for the central station to periodically communicate with each subscriber to ensure that periodic testing of the portable activator has been accomplished. Such a procedure, however, unnecessarily taxes the resources of the central station.